Study shows new benefits of renewable energy
A study funded by the European Commission assessing the socio-economic advantages of renewable energy sources (RES) as opposed to conventional energies has concluded that development will generate net employment benefits. Funded by the Commission through the ALTENER programme, the study was initiated by EUFORES (the European forum for renewable energy sources).It focused on wind and solar energy as well as biomass, and was conducted by projecting the future energy market and the market share of renewable energy in 2020 before estimating the economic and employment impact of the market changes. Conclusions include the prediction that energy produced from renewable sources will increase by a factor of around 2.4 from a base of 440 TWh in 1995 to 1,066 TWh by 2020. Modelling predictions estimate that this increase in energy provided by RES could result in the creation of over 900,000 new jobs by 2020. 385,000 of these jobs will be created by the provision of renewable energy, and 515,000 through biomass fuel production. Research has confirmed that renewable energy technologies are, in general, more labour intensive than conventional energy technologies in delivering the same level of energy output, and that jobs displaced as a result of subsidies to support renewable energy deployment are significantly less than corresponding job gains. Employment creation would occur in all Member States, with Germany, France and Italy gaining the greatest absolute employment increases and Denmark, Greece and Austria achieving the highest proportional increase relative to labour force size. These benefits are in addition to the benefits to energy security, the environment, improved industrial competitiveness, the export industry and regional development.